Underwater Mortgages Dry Up as Home Prices Recover

The number of people with underwater mortgages has begun to contract quickly, in what is likely to be a sign that real estate values have risen, or that people have paid down their home loans — or both.

12 million borrowers in the U.S. who at the peak of the real-estate downturn owed more on their mortgages than their houses were worth, blocking them from moving or saving money by taking advantage of the lowest borrowing costs on record to refinance. As prices recovered, the number of underwater borrowers fell by almost 4 million last year to 7 million, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co., and could drop to 4 million within 2 years.